Hunterdon Medical Center Emergency Department
Instituting innovative processes to rapidly improve ED services
Hunterdon concerns:
In the mid-1990s, hospital administrators at Hunterdon Medical Center in Flemington, NJ were frustrated by the situation in their emergency department. They felt there were too many service complaints and walkouts. Customer satisfaction scores were lower than administrators wanted. To address their concerns, the hospital administration turned to Pegasus Emergency Group.
The Pegasus solution:
Pegasus began by staffing the ED with residency-trained, Emergency Medicine specialists, with a goal of improved patient flow and satisfaction, prompt pain relief, rapid bed turnover and appropriate use of resources.
The changes were soon apparent:
- Within a year, the Hunterdon's Press Ganey scores went from the 70th to the 99th percentile (among hospitals in the region)
- Patient census increased to a sustained 6% growth rate
- Patient flow and bed turnover greatly improved
- 95% of patients were seen within 25 minutes of being placed in a room
- 97% of patients were seen within 50 minutes
- Implementation of sepsis, AMI, and stroke protocols
- Implementation of a computerized electronic medical record system
Lasting results:
When dealing with an ongoing concern such as an ED, improvement isn’t enough. Through continued efforts and smart management, Hunterdon has maintained patient satisfaction scores of 95 to 99 percent for the past fifteen years and steadily increased its patient census.